Friday, March 27, 2020

New Delhi: With the announcement of the suspension of all commercial passenger flights till April 14, it may appear that airports across the country are non-functional. But that is not the case.

Our airports are functional and they are being kept operational by a dedicated team of staff, working 24x7, for all cargo and evacuation flights that have been pressed into service during this hour of national and global crisis.

A constant sanitisation of the airports is being carried out, as flights continue to land and take-off. The latter is especially true of Delhi's international airport from where much of the rescue missions are being carried out. On Friday itself, a flight carrying 37 Bulgarian nationals left from Delhi for Sofia. Later in the evening, Japan Airlines evacuated more than 150 of its citizens from India via Delhi.
At Delhi airport, over 500 staff are working round-the-clock to ensure smooth operations. These include operations staff, trolley, cleaning, security, landside management at Terminal 1, 2, 3, inline baggage, airport rescue and firefighting along with airside operations.

Of these, over 100 of the operations and cleaning staff are staying inside the airport premises and, in a way, stand quarantined. They've been involved in the sanitisation of the terminal buildings including check-in areas and counters, baggage belts, immigration counters, custom area, trolleys and washrooms. Delhi International Airport Limited says, "This is the first time an extensive sanitisation work has been undertaken by the airport since it has become operational."
27/03/20 Poulomi Saha/India Today